Police body cameras coming to Indiana University campuses

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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Indiana University will begin outfitting its police officers in Indianapolis and Bloomington with body cameras.

Based on the recommendation of a committee made up of faculty, police officers, and students, as well as focus groups of students at its campuses, the Indiana University Police Department decided to buy the cameras for all of its officers.

Officers at IUPUI and the IU Bloomington campus will get the cameras first, and then the school will phase them in on smaller statewide campuses.

"We just look at it as another tool. We hope it fosters transparency," Chief Bob True said.

True, who runs public safety for the university, said that he has received bids from vendors and still needs to decide who to buy the cameras from. He believed officers would start wearing them at the first of the year.

IUPD officers already use mounted cameras in their patrol cars. They'll keep those for now and add the body cameras to their daily shifts.

"We realize it’s not the end all be all and it’s really just a piece of that whole relationship building process that we’ve been working on for years," True said.

FOX59 talked to students on the IUPUI campus, who overall said that they liked the idea of body cameras.

"I think it probably is a good idea, just because it’s more protection," freshman Beka Bishop said.

"If students know that there’s body cameras, most cops have body cameras, I think that might (give) more sense of security for students," Darius Tyler said.

Student Ali Rizvi even said that he talked about body cameras on police officers in some of his classes.

"I’m a part of SPEA and we go over footage, police footage and stuff. There’s so many different angles that you need to get a hold of the situation," Rizvi said.

The exact cost of the cameras is not known yet, but the committee estimated it would cost less than $200,000. You can read the full committee report and recommendations at the link here.